In those 5 years, the Pioneers went 64-73, 65-72, an abysmal 54-86... (and that was
good compared to 1948’s) 49-91. Finally in their final season, they finished
with a winning record at 58-52. It was an awful 5 year run and you could see it
immediately from the roster. The teams from 1939-1945 usually featured between
10-20 future and former Major Leaguers. The 1945 Elmira Pioneers, featured 1...
Ned Garver who went 3-1, 2.18 on his way to an All-Star career with the St.
Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers. Two other players however would shine on that
1945 team. On the mound, Andrew Daly (12-7, 1.84) put up a stellar performance
while Donald Fitzpatrick (31 2B, 3 3B, .320) did his best to wield a solid bat.
Amazingly enough, the best hitting performance perhaps out of the Browns’ entire
history here would come from one of its worst teams… the 1947 86 loss team,
which produced Ken Wood… a future St. Louis Browns outfielder. Up until now, Bill
McWilliams had held the HR record of the Elmira Pioneers with 11 in 1939. Nobody
had even come close to breaking that mark, but in 1947, Ken Wood would double
it, slamming 22 HRs and 32 2Bs while batting .264, to easily become Dunn Field
II’s biggest "power king" ever. Keep in mind that only 2 years earlier, the
entire team had hit only 4 HRs total, so 22... that kind of amazed this crowd.
In fact, it was a stat that would (believe it or not)... stand the test of time.
In 1948, another superstar would come to Elmira but if you blinked, you would
have missed it. Roy Sievers had tore it up in Springfield, batting .309 with
14 2B and 19 HR. He was promoted at the very end of the season to Elmira where
he hit just a paltry .179 with 3 2B and 2 HR. Barely anyone noticed him in his
Pioneers uniform, but by the following season... he was a full time player in St.
Louis wearing a Browns uniform, and he put up a terrific .306 batting average
with 28 2B and 16 HR in his first year. It was a strong enough effort to win
the "Rookie of the Year Award"... the first ever to come out of Dunn Field II.
By 1957, Sievers had become the Washington Senators’ #1 slugger and he had an amazing
year slamming 42 HRs with 114 RBIs. Sievers would spend 17 years in the
Majors making the All-Star team 4 times and amassed 318 HRs in his excellent career.
In the final season of the St. Louis Browns reign in Elmira, they offered
up perhaps the best hitting team that the city had ever seen. Future Browns’ Owen
Friend (23 2B, 20 HR, .264), future Browns/Cubs’ Joe Lutz (.15 2B, 17 HR, .300)
and Edward Fowler (26 2B, 17 HR, .267) slugged their way out of the basement
and finally above .500 for the first time 5 years. Now that they finally had
a decent team on the field, they pulled out of Elmira. We don’t think the fans
missed them much.